Hakoda left along with all of the other men in his tribe to fight the Fire Nation when Sokka was a young boy. Despite his desire to join his father, Sokka was not permitted to accompany the men on the mission and was left behind.[7] As there were no other teenage boys in the tribe, Sokka was the oldest male in the South Pole and, therefore, left as the leader of the tribe. He assumed responsibility for the tribe, haplessly training children to be future warriors, until his sister discovered an Air Nomad named Aang frozen in an iceberg.[7] When he learned that Aang was the Avatar,[8] he was at first skeptical that a child could really save the world. As he and his sister helped Aang on his quest, he began to believe that Aang really was the only hope for peace in the world.

Despite his inability to bend, Sokka became the strategist of the group, constantly trying to prove himself to be a great warrior like his father. He attempted to train the younger children of the Southern Water Tribe in fighting. Sokka was also the "matter of fact" guy in the group and did not believe in spirit magic, as he openly mocked it.[9] His leadership skills improved during his travels with the Avatar, culminating with his masterminding the plan for the invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun.[10] His humor and his ability to organize and plan became imperative to the group on their travels. By the conclusion of the Hundred Year War, Sokka became a master swordsman[11] and a great warrior like his father.

Contents

History

Early life

Sokka was born at the South Pole to ChiefHakoda and Kya in 84 AG. Growing up as part of a minor tribe that lived in the remains of the Southern Water Tribe's ruined capital, Sokka was raised from a young age to be a warrior and possessed much knowledge of Water Tribe weapons and tactics. When he was ten, Sokka witnessed one of the last major Fire Nation raids on his tribe, during which his mother was targeted and killed, leaving him with great hatred for the Fire Nation.[13]

When his father left with the other men of the tribe to fight in the Hundred Year War, Sokka was put under his Gran Gran's care and became his tribe's last defense.[14] He took the task seriously, building a number of snow watchtowers around the village and even "training" the young children of the village as soldiers.[7] Although Sokka had the spirit of a warrior and the courage to stand up to any enemy, he initially lacked the skills and techniques that would make him a formidable opponent. That would not stop him from trying, though, especially if his friends needed help.[8] He was protective of his younger sister[7][15] and treasured the boomerang[16] given to him by his father.[13]

During his travels with Aang, Sokka improved his skills significantly, and had evolved into a skilled fighter with a sword forged from meteorite,[11] a true leader,[17] and a cunning strategic planner.[10]

Winter 99 AG

Spring 100 AG

Summer 100 AG

101 AG

Helping to train Team Beifong

During the year immediately subsequent to the Hundred Year War, Sokka joined Katara and Aang in the "Harmony Restoration Movement" to disassemble the Fire Nation colonies in service of Earth King Kuei.[18]

Sokka interrupted the duel to propose a "match to the sit".

When Sokka was heading to Ba Sing Se with Team Avatar to inform Earth King Kuei about Yu Dao's situation, he decided to leave with Toph to her metalbending academy in order to avoid his "oogies" at Aang and Katara's relationship. The earthbender grabbed Sokka and jumped from Appa as they both made their way to the academy. Sokka inquired Toph about her initiative to start the school, getting a response he identified as a lie and proceeded to guess her real motive. When they caught the metalbending students leaving the academy, Toph stopped them and introduced them to Sokka. The students informed their sifu that they had been kicked out of the school by Kunyo, whom Toph went to face and demand her school back. However, Sokka interrupted before they could fight, stating that it would be a better idea to give the place to the most effective school thus letting the students fight. He made everyone agree to a "match to the sit", which consisted in the win of the team who could force the other one sit down first, and start it in three days.

When Sokka noticed Toph's students still were unable to metalbend, he offered to help them by being a "motivational bender". He began giving them a speech about metal and trying to make them bend metal coins, but unsuccessfully. After another disastrous attempt to inspire the three pupils by making them get emotional and scaring them with a metal monster Sokka made Toph bend, the earthbending instructor told her friend about her feeling of failure as she was expecting her students to become something they were not. The day of the battle, Sokka observed how Toph was surrendering at Kunyo and his students' arrival but was stopped by Ho Tun, Penga, and The Dark One, who demonstrated their ability to metalbend and defeated the firebending team with metal coins thrown by the Water Tribe warrior. He, impressed, congratulated the team for their successful result that lead to their final consolidation as metalbending students.[19]

Battle for Yu Dao

Sokka stayed with Toph at the metalbending academy until the day of the battle for Yu Dao, when Suki arrived in a hot air balloon. She greeted Toph and Sokka, telling them that she had found them through a complaint from Kunyo about a "dirt girl" and a "snow savage" taking over his school. Suki climbed back into her balloon, explaining that she needed their help with preventing Zuko from starting another war. Landing the balloon near the Fire Nation battle procession, Sokka began to formulate their plan of action. On his command, Toph earthbent a tunnel that led to one of the tundra tanks. With the aid of the girl's metalbending abilities, the trio hijacked one of the tanks. Inside, Sokka decided upon their next move. He ordered Suki to pull up alongside as many tanks as she could, so Toph could loosen the screws on the tank's wheels with metalbending. When the Fire Nation Army reached Yu Dao, Suki drove their tundra tank to Aang and Katara, who were standing with the Avatar's Yu Dao fan club members outside the walls. Aang and his fans prepared to attack the tank, but stopped when Toph and Sokka clambered out of the machine. Sokka expressed his frustration at Katara and Aang for not coming back to get him like they had promised, and Toph explained that they had been trying to slow the Fire Nation Army down. When Katara questioned this, as the army had still reached Yu Dao, Sokka commanded Toph to put the next phase of their plan into action. The earthbender struck the ground, creating tremors that rendered the tundra tanks useless by causing the screws in the wheels to pop out. While the tanks had been disabled, Zuko ordered the rest of his soldiers to attack GeneralHow's. Aang and Katara retreated to the top of the wall, and Toph, Suki, and Sokka followed suit with the aid of Toph's bending, where they decided to split up. Sokka agreed to deal with Smellerbee and the rest of the protesters. After the battle was over, he was seen running back to Aang and Katara, rejoining Team Avatar.[20]

102 AG

Searching for Ursa

Some time after the battle for Yu Dao, Sokka attended a meeting together with his friends and several government officials at the home of the governor of Yu Dao to discuss the future of the city. A professor gave a lecture on ancient Earth Kingdom philosophies regarding the four nations, though it was of little interest to him. Sokka was complaining about it to Aang, who also could not be captivated by the professor. The two friends were soon shushed by Katara who did want to pay attention. Sokka retorted however, that he was not surprised that his "boring sister" liked "boring lecture guy", earning him a waterbending-generated snowball to the face from Katara.

Meanwhile, Zuko had snapped back to attention when the professor had made a comparison between how one treats their family and how one rules. He took the comment seriously, thus Sokka tried to lighten his mood by stating that the professor was a "blowhard", who was only liked by people like Katara, earning himself another snowball to the face.

A week later, Sokka traveled to the Fire Nation Royal Palace together with Aang and Katara upon Zuko's inquiry. Upon arrival, they were delightfully surprised when they discovered Iroh there as well. Zuko explained that Iroh was there to act as interim Fire Lord while he would be gone, looking for Ursa, a journey on which he invited them all to accompany him. However, the amicable atmosphere quickly changed when Azula emerged from behind Zuko. Katara attacked the princess, with Aang and Sokka preparing to do the same. While Aang warned Azula to stay back as he did not want to hurt her, Sokka made it clear that he did not share the same sentiment, though his threat was met with laughter, as Azula did not perceive his boomerang as a danger. Before the conflict could escalate any further, they were halted by Suki and Ty Lee, who implored them to let Zuko explain the situation. While the Fire Lord did so, Sokka passionately reunited with Suki. As Zuko mentioned, however, that Azula was to come with them, Sokka called him out to be a "bad decision lord", though later complied regardless.

The following day, Sokka readily volunteered to take the first watch over Azula, much to Zuko's worry. He confidently walked over to the Fire Nation princess and threatened her again with his boomerang, though Azula shot the weapon out of his hands with a small lightning bolt, knocking him on his behind. As the princess was quickly overpowered by his friends and tensions calmed down again, he casually stated that it was perhaps better that someone else took the first watch instead of him.

Airborne, Sokka commented how the adventure felt like "old times", though much to his annoyance, Aang stated that it was better than old times since he could now kiss Katara whenever, something he deftly demonstrated. Aang suddenly had a gruesome expression on his face, caused by the presence of a spirit, causing Sokka to exclaim that it was already by enough that they had one passenger who stared "with crazy eyes" at them, referring to Azula who had a minor psychotic breakdown moments before. The Water Tribe warrior continued to mock the Avatar's expression, only to be stopped when Katara waterbent a snowball to his face. Their playful antics suddenly became serious when Azula dived off Appa and set fire to Aang's glider, who had swooped down to save her from plummeting to her death, subsequently sending him crashing down on the ground. As they landed, Sokka and Katara quickly jumped off to tend to the downed airbender, while Zuko went after his sister.

Sokka, Katara, and Aang caught up with the two firebenders at a nearby river, right when they were about to fight one another. Katara cut the battle short, encasing Azula in ice. The princess subsequently insulted Katara, though froze in horror mid-sentence as the wolf spirit appeared behind an unknowing Sokka, as he thought Azula's fearful look was caused by his boomerang. Sokka nearly evaded getting his head bitten off by the spirit and ran to safety. When the spirit snapped at Aang who was trying to reason with it, Sokka threw his boomerang at the creature, though the full hit on its head did not even faze it. He was taken aback by the spirit's ability to swallow Zuko's fire blast, burp, and eventually throw up moth wasps, deeming the creature to be the "grossest spirit ever". The spirit insects attacked the group, covering Sokka's arm in such density that he could not even see it anymore. They were eventually saved when Azula shot a lightning bolt away from them all, drawing the moths and the wolf spirit with it.

At nightfall, the team had set up camp, and Sokka was sitting around the campfire together with Zuko, while Azula slept uneasily away from the group, Aang meditated, and Katara slept next to Appa with Momo. He questioned why Zuko let Azula sleep with her hands unbound, to which he received the response that he was giving her a chance, since she did save them all from the moth wasps. When Zuko asked why Sokka was still up, the Water Tribe warrior comically mentioned that he had bladder issues since he drank too much water to get rid of the moth wasps' taste. He looked over his shoulder at his sleeping sister and commented on the cold temperature, before getting up and lovingly covering Katara with a blanket. When a surprised Zuko asked why he would still care for Katara after she had thrown so many snowballs at his face, Sokka answered that he threw witticisms at her instead, stating that when it came to Katara, he did not mind getting the short end of the deal. He gave Zuko a blanket as well when the firebender requested one, before taking his leave to the forest in order to empty his bladder.[21]

The next day he had to help his sister put out fires started by Azula before heading into town. After watching a performance of Love amongst the Dragons the group was invited back to the director Noren's home for lunch. Sokka pretended they were a theater history group to help uncover more information about Ursa. Eventually questioning lead the group to the Forgetful Valley.

Upon arriving in the Forgotten Valley, Sokka noticed that there were faces on everything in the valley. When the group came under attack he did his best to defend his friends with his boomerang. Eventually they're attackers were revealed to be, Rafa and Misu, siblings from the Northern Water Tribe. After listening to their story he shared a moment with his sister. When Aang went off to convince the wolf spirit to the pool, he helped Katara and Zuko subdue Azula, after she suffered another psychosis.

Empathising with his friend's sisterly problems, Sokka went with Zuko to assist him against Azula.

After the arrival of the Mother of Faces, he tried to prevent Azula's escape after she learned about her mother's new identity. He went after her, along with Zuko, taking a shortcut back to Noren's home. While Zuko went inside he stayed outside to defend the home. Eventually he ended up crashing through the roof of the home while battling Azula. After the battle he reunited with Katara and Aang, questioning Azula's motives for leaving the letter behind.

Visiting San's House of Seashells

Sometime later, Sokka and Suki visited Seashell San's House of Shells in a Fire Nation marketplace, telling Suki that he had wanted to collect seashells since he was a little boy. He compared the sounds in the shells to a "teeny-tiny" Aang airbending and asked San how much they were worth. Being told they were worth fifteen ban for one but at a special of two for thirty, he grew excited, but quickly realized what the vendor was doing and grew annoyed. Suki called the warrior a goof, but he asked if she meant "handsome warrior with formidable biceps". After a girl, Giya, entered the store and San discouraged her from buying shells because she appeared to be a fake collector, Suki confronted him and his assistant, Jojan. Sokka tried to warn the men to not put their hands on her, unfazed by the vendor's order for the couple to leave. As Suki began taking down the men, Sokka asked if she needed help; he was told sweetly she did not though was thanked for the offer and kissed on the cheek. After the men were defeated, the couple left, with Sokka warning them their shells had been set on fire by San's firebending because of the lacquer that was on them.

As the two exited, Sokka remarked that the store was not the coolest place ever. They caught up with Giya; after Suki introduced them to her, he added that she was a Kyoshi Warrior, confirming their status as the Fire Lord's elite guard. He told the worried girl that Suki could teach her self-defense techniques in the event that they were confronted again. After Suki told Giya the story of the Kyoshi Warriors' founding, Sokka told the seemingly unsure young woman not to underestimate herself. After being told that Giya would rather have some of her friends with her because she was too shy to train alone, the warrior smiled at his girlfriend. He later stood in with Giya and her friends as Suki began instructing them in the Kyoshi Warriors' ways.[22]

Reviving Yangchen's Festival

Greatly enjoying the celebration banquet, Sokka raved about the turtle duck dish and tried to get the vegetarian Yee-Li to try it too.

When the peace talks in Yu Dao came to an end, Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar returned there to witness the introduction of the city's new coalition government. Although having witnessed a historic moment, he was more excited about the subsequent celebration banquet, during which he raved about the turtle duck dish, trying to get the vegetarian Yee-Li to try it too. When Toph informed everyone that her metalbending academy was doing so well that she was in need of expansion but lacked the necessary funds, Sokka suggested to charge her students tuition, figuring that she would end up being richer than the Earth King, though she rejected the idea. When Aang joined their table and announced that they were all going on a field trip the following day, Sokka was not immediately fond of the idea as he had hoped to peruse the local markets for a new bag.

Nevertheless, he accompanied Aang, Toph, Katara, and three Air Acolytes, Xing Ying, Yee-Li, and Jingbo toward a cliff overlooking the ocean where they would commence the celebration of Yangchen's Festival by bowing to a stone statue. Upon arrival, he was surprised to learn that it was not a statue of Yangchen as he had been expecting. When he asked Aang about the identity of the woman, the young Avatar had to admit that he was not sure who it was, but subsequently waved Sokka's skepticism about bowing to an unknown lady's statue away by stating that it was just how it was done.

Sokka commented with disgust that seeing Toph's softer side gave him the "oogies".

After the bowing ceremony, the group set out toward the sacred meadow where they would enjoy a ceremonial Air Nomad meal, which was not something Sokka was looking forward to, giving that the Air Nomads were vegetarians. However, they soon discovered that a town had been built on the meadow and he and Toph set out to find a decent meal of meat. They later found the rest of the group on the grounds of the Earthen Fire Refinery, and after the factory's interim boss, Satoru, became starstruck by Toph and invited her for a tour of the refinery, Sokka and the others tagged along as Toph's guests. Sokka was amazed by the amount of machinery, as he had never seen so many before. When the tour led them back outside, Sokka's interest was piqued upon seeing a forklift and he insisted on trying it out for himself, though ended up breaking it. When Toph managed to fix the vehicle in mere moments, earning herself the praise of Satoru, Sokka commented with disgust that seeing Toph's softer side gave him the "oogies".

When Aang eventually managed to strike up a conversation with Satoru about the refinery's location and accused to factory of having defiled the sacred land, Sokka backed him up, stating that nature could never have polluted a river to the point the river nearby the factory had been defiled. However, when Toph corroborated Satoru's claim that the factory was not to blame for that, Sokka instantly changed his opinion, backing the earthbender up instead. When Toph subsequently got into an argument with Aang, the ground shook and Sokka urged the two earthbenders to remain calm, assuming they were responsible for it. When a second, bigger quake occurred, Satoru asked them all to leave, but before they could heed the engineer's request, they heard a factory worker call out for help, the earthquakes having left him trapped under a haywire machine. Sokka instantly helped usher the factory workers to safety under cover from Katara, who used her waterbending to pulverize incoming rocks, while Aang and Toph moved in to save the trapped man. After the crisis was averted, Sokka was shocked to learn that Loban's business partner and co-owner of the refinery was Lao Beifong, Toph's father[23] and called him out to be a liar when he declared Toph to be a confused girl, rather than his daughter.[24]

Sokka used himself and Katara as decoys to lure the Rough Rhinos to the river side, where his sister would have the advantage.

When Lao subsequently ordered the Rough Rhinos to escort Team Avatar off the refinery's premises, Sokka was skeptical of the intention of the others to fight all the guards, noting that they all looked like strong men. He did not hesitate to help out, though, and used his machete to take a swing at Colonel Mongke. After the firebender deflected his blow on his chest plate and tried to blast him with fire, Sokka switched tactics and ran away. He dragged Katara, who was fighting two Rough Rhinos herself, along with him, prompting the three men to chase them. By dodging the charge at the last minute, Sokka had lured the guards to run down the fence and take to fight to the riverside, where he pointed Katara at the closeness of the water, which she used to quickly encase the Rough Rhinos in ice. Sokka approached Yeh-Lu, who was holding a burning grenade, and started to taunt him, taking his time to get rid of the explosive. He failed to extinguish the wick, however, leaving him to toss the explosive away. As it detonated near the river, Sokka angrily turned to Yeh-Lu, outing his unbelief over the destructive power of the explosive and that it had been intended to be used against him.

Sokka was able to dodge Kahchi's attack, though the weapon destroyed one of the mine's support beams, causing the entire cave to collapse.

After Katara pointed Sokka's attention to the passageway the explosive had revealed, the siblings promptly checked it out. Using glowing crystals, they illuminated their path and eventually arrived to an iron ore mine, which was also the cause of the river's pollution. When they were discovered by Kahchi and Vachir, Sokka readied his machete and took out Kahchi. He had more trouble with Vachir, however, and the skirmish between them led to the weakening of one of the mine's support beams, as the ex-Yuyan Archer's arrows lodged itself deep in the wood, tearing it. After Katara pointed out the hazardous situation they were in, Sokka tried to urge every worker to evacuate, though without success. They were approached by Nutha and Niyok, who explained that everyone down there needed the job to survive, so no one dared to leave without their boss's orders. In order to get everyone out, Sokka ran back toward the refinery to find Lao Beifong and get him to order everyone to excavate the mine. He barged in to his office and explained the situation, though was met with disbelief, as Lao was not aware that the refinery was also excavating the iron ore. Sokka convinced Lao to follow him to the mine, where Lao gave the evacuation order. When Loban appeared and contradicted that order, Sokka was once more attacked by Kahchi. Although he was able to dodge the weapon thrown at him, the blade shattered one of the support beams, causing the mine to cave in. Being close to an exit, Sokka managed to exit the mine in time, supporting Niyok, who had broken her arm in the process. Outside, he found Aang and quickly explained the situation to him. Sokka was relieved to hear Katara call out to them after Aang reduced the amount of earth that separated them from the trapped people.[24]

In order to save Toph and the others who were trapped in the mine, Sokka got Team Beifong to help him.

Arriving at the Beifong Metalbending Academy, Sokka quickly pulled Penga, Ho Tun, and The Dark One out of class, saying that it was a serious situation that he would explain more about en route, only noting at that point that Toph needed their help. After reaching the town, Sokka listened as the students told Aang about the situation being the reverse of an exercise surrounding iron plates and, hearing The Dark One use terminology such as "messed up" and "stomped", he asked what had happened to his poetry. The warrior watched as the metalbenders removed the ground above those trapped; while Aang and Katara kissed, Sokka told Momo, perched on his shoulder, that the oogies were well-deserved before happily reuniting with his sister.

After Aang returned from a short meditation session and explained that the town needed to be returned to its natural state, prompting Sokka to ask if that included the destruction of the refinery. With the iron mask the metalbender students had dug up being taken to the beaches by Loban and the Rough Rhinos, Sokka decided to join Satoru on his forklift to retrieve it at Aang's urging; he asked if he could drive, but was rebuffed by the scientist.

Upon arrival at the beach, Sokka threw his boomerang at the rope the Rough Rhinos were using to drag the mask away, saying the Avatar needed it returned while preparing for an attack by Loban's lackeys. He used the weapon to stop an attack from Vachir before giving Satoru his battle club, telling him just to outthink his opponents. After deploying his boomerang to knock the bow and arrow out of Vachir's hands, he attempted to intimidate him by mocking his hand-to-hand fighting abilities. When the archer attempted to throw a punch, the warrior grabbed his wrist and flipped him to the ground. After noticing Satoru hit the forklift's engine to create a back blast and thus throw Kahchi back, Sokka commented that it was the proper way to outthink his foe. When Satoru asked if it worked on bigger opponents, Sokka's attention was called to the rising spirit, General Old Iron. As the spirit grabbed the mask with Loban by its ropes, Sokka and Satoru latched on and were dragged with him.

As the spirit marched to the town, Sokka, Satoru, and Loban were saved by Katara, who bent up a water vortex that allowed them to slide safely to the ground. Despite being rescued, Sokka only remarked that he did not like water slides any more than dirt slides.

Following Aang's victory over Old Iron, Sokka was running away from Momo, trying to keep some food he had been given. Three months later, during the new Spirits' Friendship Festival, Sokka set up a meat stand, selling items such as meat kebabs, which he described as a shish kebab but without the stuff consumers did not like.[25]

Later life

By the age of forty-three, Sokka served as the Southern Water Tribe representative on the United Republic Council as well as the Council's chairman. In his function as spokesman, Sokka sentenced Yakone, with consensus from the rest of the Council, to life in prison for his crimes. In response, Yakone bloodbent him and everyone else inside the City Hall courtroom.[12]

Sometime after 128 AG, Sokka became a chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe. In 158 AG, a group of powerful benders known as the Red Lotus, led by Zaheer, a nonbender at the time, attempted to kidnap Korra, the new Avatar. Sokka, along with Zuko, Tenzin, and Korra's father, Tonraq, thwarted the kidnapping attempt and saved the young Avatar.[26]

Personality

According to his sister Katara, Sokka was initially skeptical, abrasive, sexist and immature[7] and was always sharp-witted. Detached from Katara's and Aang's pursuit of the bending arts, he openly expressed his "bender envy".[11][28] Sokka thought bending was what got the world in trouble in the first place, so he believed only the skill and strength of ordinary men like himself could ultimately defeat the Fire Nation.[29] Not having bending abilities himself, Sokka instead preferred the ways of the warrior and the scientist.[30][31] He took his responsibility as protector seriously.[8] Initially, he did not seem to believe in the bending arts, calling Katara's bending "magic water".[7] The appearance of the Avatar seemed to change his mind. However, he never seemed to fully accept the fact that as the Avatar, Aang must learn firebending.[32] He was the least eager for Aang to start learning firebending under Jeong Jeong. Later on, when Aang accidentally burned Katara, Sokka threw him to the ground and yelled how he knew that Aang learning firebending was a mistake.[33] This antagonism toward firebending seemed to persist, evidenced when he jokingly referred to Zuko's training of Aang as, "jerkbending".[34] Apparently, Sokka only accepted the mastering of the last element because it would help Aang defeat the Fire Lord.

He could become serious when he desired to or when the need arose and was protective of his sister, Katara. This was shown when he violently tackled Aang to the ground after Aang accidentally burned Katara's hands.[35] Sokka was also protective of Aang, and when Aang surrendered himself to Zuko, Sokka immediately prepared to rescue him.[36] Later, he decided that getting Aang to the North Pole was more important than seeing his father again after years of separation.[37] Sokka also proved to be intelligent, creative, and good at coming up with ideas, even if said ideas were not always good. He was also generally the one who was counted on for determining the strategy of attack.[38]

Sokka was clearly loyal to his friends, family, and allies. Many times over, he had helped them when he could and when he was needed.[15] However, Sokka also seemed to realize the importance – and sometimes necessity – of one having to fight their own battles. When Master Piandao attacked Sokka, Aang, Katara, and Toph rushed in to help him, but he told his friends to stay back as it was his battle to fight alone. He had to prove himself as a swordsman, although it turned out Piandao simply attacked his pupil just to test him.[11] Later, he held a similar view during Aang's battle with Ozai when Sozin's Comet arrived. When Suki suggested she, Toph, and Sokka should help Aang, Sokka pointed out that "the Fire Lord is Aang's fight". He understood it was Aang's destiny to face Ozai alone, while he, Suki, and Toph focused their energies on stopping the Fire Nation airship fleet.[17]

Sokka was the critical thinker of Team Avatar and devised the group's agenda.

Patriotic and long to hold a grudge, he strongly desired and eventually meted out vengeance for the Fire Nation's decimation of the Water Tribe and the death of his mother.[8] He held little interest in the mysticism surrounding bending and preferred to solve problems using his strength and his wits. He tended to be rash, however, and his pride often led to embarrassment. When Sokka had been humiliated, his versatility made for a heartfelt apology and changing of his ways. A good example of this was when he apologized to Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors for saying that boys were better than girls.[39]

Sokka learned to be flexible. He may have been closed-minded at first, but that was because he wanted to protect himself and those he loved. Not long after he started traveling with the Avatar, Sokka began to change, even to the extent that he humbly apologized to Suki.[39] As the series progressed, he became more optimistic. He liked to keep smiles on his friends' faces using his wit, sarcastic humor, and overall eccentricity. Sokka was an underdog. He was constantly the one who got beaten upon.[40] Most of his plans failed miserably;[41] however, he bravely kept fighting.

From the start, Sokka was willing to die defending his tribe, even though he never stood the smallest chance.[8] Despite his obvious cleverness, Sokka sometimes acted silly, if not outright stupid. He occasionally created ridiculous plans that were nearly impossible to carry out. He was also a general victim of slapstick, often being sent flying or getting struck by things. Aunt Wu even stated, "Your future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it, self-inflicted". When Sokka protested that she did not even read his palm, she remarked "I don't need to. It's written all over your face".[42] His sarcastic and strange behavior could sometimes carry over into important decisions.

Sokka had a habit of over-explaining his plans, much to the annoyance of his friends.[43] He also had a habit of missing the point in certain situations, again much to the annoyance of his friends.

As the main comic relief of Team Avatar, Sokka had a naturally lighthearted personality.

A passionate carnivore, Sokka had demonstrated his love of meat on multiple occasions and was the main hunter in the group.[42][44] Sokka also had a habit of using sarcasm. However, when he got trapped at one point, Sokka shouted at "karma in the heavens", vowing to give up both meat and sarcasm for assistance. He would also consider himself no longer "Sokka, the meat and sarcasm guy", but willing to be "Sokka, the veggies and straight-talk fellow". However, when he was freed eventually, he had given up neither meat nor sarcasm. He even asked "Aang, thank goodness, have you got any meat?" after being found less than a second after shouting to Karma.[1] Despite his love of meat, he found it almost impossible to resist food, often gorging himself on various dishes when the group ate properly cooked meals.[39][45] He showed contempt for Katara's cooking, however.

As much as Sokka loved meat, he grew close to every pet he received. He had a hilarious relationship with Momo.[35] He also tried to adopt a messenger hawk, which he fondly named "Hawky".[46]

Perhaps the biggest growth and change in Sokka during his participation in the Hundred Year War was his learning to accept people of the Fire Nation, learning that no nation was entirely good or bad, meaning that he should not blame the people of the nation, but rather its ruler.[47][48][49]

Sokka also appeared to be unbiased once he stopped judging girls. Despite Hama having been from the Southern Water Tribe like himself and his sister, a victim of War and the last true waterbender of their tribe, Sokka still did not exempt her from his suspicions as the probable cause of the strange disappearances. He also made no effort to prove her innocence when faced with absolute proof that she was behind them.[48]

Even in later years, Sokka maintained his humorous and good-natured personality as well as his sense of justice.

Under the tutelage of the swordmaster Piandao, Sokka expressed various unorthodox procedures while undergoing his training. In one exercise, when told to stamp his identity onto a sheet of paper, rather than simply writing his name, Sokka smeared ink all over his face and pressed it onto the paper. As he presented Sokka with his blade, Piandao related that it was not his skills that impressed him, but his creativity, versatility and intelligence. All were traits that went beyond mere skills and what defined a great swordsman.[11]

Sokka wrote with his right hand, but drew and ate with his left hand. He was possibly ambidextrous, because he was seen painting with his right[50] as well as his left[51] hand. His left-handed art was crude and rudimentary; however, this could just be due to a limited drawing ability.[51]

Sokka had a great ability to adapt: He changed where change was needed, learned to love and respect others, embraced his own identity, accepted failure, and formed lasting loyalties. He was willing to fight on, even when the cause seemed hopeless.[50][52] Sokka became a master swordsman, and a great warrior like his father.

By the time he was forty-three years old, Sokka had mastered the art of public speaking; as chairman of the United Republic Council, he displayed an eloquence in speech and fluidity of presence he did not possess in his younger years.[12][53]

Abilities

Intelligence

Science and engineering

For an inhabitant of a world heavily supported by the mystic art of bending, Sokka showed a remarkable proclivity toward science. He was adept at creating weapons from a variety of materials, and learned how to construct amateur explosives from his father, which he once used to simulate firebending.[30] In another instance, Sokka used trickery and optical illusions to help his sister Katara fake the ability to earthbend.[54]

Sokka showed his incredible intellectual potential, capacity to learn, and critical thinking skills all throughout the friends' journey. He absorbed information quickly and completely and solved problems at an alarming rate. An example of this can be seen when he solved the dilemma of the hot air balloon, which stumped even an engineering genius, shortly after having the concept explained to him.[31]

Strategy and tactics

As a nonbender among a group of master benders, Sokka was often overshadowed by the bending skills of his friends.[11][28] However, it was Sokka that usually devised plans,[38][55] gathered intelligence, and collected data[56] and maps[46] that could help his group defeat the Fire Nation. He often became the navigator and chose the route to follow despite the objections of others.[9] His skills as a fighter noticeably improved as the team's quest continued, although it was usually his persistence rather than skill that allowed him to land a blow against opponents of superior skill, such as Zuko[8] and Ty Lee.[28] Sokka employed other strategies to defeat larger enemies. He incapacitated Wan Shi Tong by using the element of surprise and attacking him from above. In that particular encounter, Sokka's wit succeeded where Aang and Katara's bending had failed. It was also Sokka who discovered that a solar eclipse disables a firebender's ability to bend and his idea to travel to Ba Sing Se and inform the Earth King.[56] When Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom fell, Sokka devised a new invasion plan to strike the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun with a group of their friends and allies they had made, rather than Earth Kingdom's armies. On the day of Sozin's Comet, he came up with a strategy that allowed himself, Suki, and Toph to bring down the entire Fire Nation airship fleet. Perhaps his greatest triumph, however, was his nearly single-handed defeat of Combustion Man by using his boomerang to hit his tattoo on his forehead to block the latter's chi flow. This action ultimately resulted in Combustion Man's demise, something that the combined efforts of all his friends failed to do.[49]

Sokka's leadership skills evolved as the War ended. Initially, he assumed leadership of the group based on the fact that he was the oldest, that he had some rudimentary warrior training, and that Aang was just a goofy kid. However, his bossy attitude infuriated Katara.[57] His skills were also undermined by his xenophobia, chauvinism and general bullheadedness. However, Sokka was usually willing to admit when he was wrong. This seemed to earn him the respect of several of the people he met and helped him grow as a warrior and as a person. It should also be noted that Sokka was occasionally right in his opinions. His immaturity, though, often caused Katara and Aang to ignore him. By the second season, Sokka seemed to have matured and referred to the group as a team.[38] He also seemed to respect the opinions of others. They, in turn, considered his advice more seriously, even coming to rely on it.[38] Later, in the third season, the group told Sokka how much they needed him. Without him, they were bored, lost, unable to decide what to do, could not remember what they needed to do, and were being tortured by Katara's horrible jokes, to the point where Aang admitted, "I guess the jokes don't run in the family", much to her chagrin.[11]

Arts

Sokka showed a remarkable talent for poetry. When he stumbled into a poetry reading, he went toe-to-toe with the instructor in a haiku contest and held his own and nearly won. However, his hubris got the best of him, and he was viciously thrown out for accidentally adding an extra syllable to the end of a haiku, where he subsequently renounced his short-lived love for poetry.[2] Sokka was also, albeit humorously, a terrible artist, yet somehow strangely unaware or in denial of it. He emotionally defended his "artwork", which was still met with more laughter from his peers.[50][51]

Weapon proficiency

While training to be a soldier for the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka became proficient in a variety of weapons; the most noticeable being his trademark boomerang, to which he has shown immense aim with, even from a blindspot by determining the enemy's line of fire. His arsenal also included clubs,[8] a machete,[58] spears,[8] and the newest addition, a meteoriteiron sword,[11] though Sokka lost this in Wulong Forest in an attempt to save him and Toph.[50]

Swordsmanship

Sokka was formally trained in swordmanship, revealing the serious side of his personality.

Wishing to contribute more to his team in actual combat, Sokka decided to learn the art of swordsmanship, wielding a Jian sword. Under the tutelage of the Fire Nation swordmaster Piandao, Sokka underwent various activities, including sparring matches with the butler Fat to hone his swordwielding skills and arts such as painting, calligraphy, and rock gardening to sharpen his mind. Eventually, when instructed to make his own sword, he used fragments of a meteorite that fell the night before to collect the metal needed to forge his blade.[11] Sokka's sword, like his master's, was patterned on a Qing Dynasty jian, but had the properties of the alien material used for its creation, making it unique. The blade retained an unusual all-black appearance and was able to slice through the toughest materials, such as steel.[53] Although Sokka proved unable to defeat his master in a duel, Piandao stated that Sokka possessed the traits that one day could make him an even greater swordsman than he was.[11] During the passing of Sozin's Comet, Sokka was once again able to prove his proficient skills in fighting.[52] Even after breaking his leg from a fall and holding onto Toph, who was about to fall to her death, he managed to take out two firebenders that were about to finish him off. He defeated them by drawing his boomerang and throwing it at the first firebender, knocking him out, and proceeding to kick his sword into the air, catching it and throwing it to slice through the platform on which the other firebender was standing. However, he lost both items in the process.[50]

More examples were present in his training with Piandao. Sokka became an advanced swordsman rapidly, besting Piandao's servant, Fat, in just a couple of days. He also managed to gain a firm grasp on blacksmithing in that short time, as he forged his own sword[11] and later a suit of armor for Appa.[32] His unique critical thinking ability came into play often through the training exercises of Piandao. He "stamped his identity" on a page by applying ink to his face and rolling it across the paper after he was informed that he got a little of it on him while thinking. During the rock gardening exercise, he "manipulated the terrain to his advantage" by rolling boulders and relocating moss to make a sort of lounge chair in the shade, thus appealing to his love of relaxation.[11]

Trivia

Interestingly, both of Sokka's romantic partners have names that mean "moon", as "Yue" and "Suki" (as the anglicized version of "Tsuki") both refer to the moon in Chinese and Japanese, respectively.

Sokka was portrayed by Jackson Rathbone in the film adaptation, The Last Airbender. His portrayal earned him the Golden Raspberry award for the "Worst Supporting Actor" of 2010.

Sokka's favorite pastime was shopping, followed by developing plans.[11]

Sokka mentioned that his "ponytail" was actually a "warrior's wolf tail", a traditional hairstyle sported by male Water Tribe warriors.[28]

Sokka means "loverboy" in Zulu, which fits his character well.

Sokka was kissed far more times than any other character in the franchise, having been kissed at least three times in the first season alone, twice in the second season, at least three more in the third season, and at least once in The Promise trilogy, totaling a minimum of nine kisses.

Sokka was an active sleeper, meaning that he tossed and turned at night.[60]

Sokka was seen or mentioned in every episode of the original series except "Zuko Alone".

Sokka's outfit for The Promise was meant to appear similar to Hakoda's character design, in order to symbolize their bond.[61]

Sokka was often treated differently as a nonbender: prior to leaving for the Earth Kingdom, Sokka did not receive a parting gift from Pakku, while Katara and Aang received waterbending scrolls and spirit water.[36] Later on, Toph insulted him by saying that it was a three-on-three battle, and that Sokka did not count because he was not a bender. Afterward, Toph corrected herself, saying the group consisted of "three plus Sokka".[28] In the Fire Nation, Sokka wanted to help his team douse a fire before it reached the nearby town, but was told by Aang to just take care of Momo.[11]

Sokka stated that he was unable to steer the pirate ship as it was not a Water Tribe vessel.[62] This suggests that he was knowledgeable in operating Water Tribe ships.

According to Sokka, the reason he did not trust Aang when they first met was because he was a firebender in his past life, realizing this upon finding that Avatar Roku was a firebender.[44]

Sokka gained forging skills when he made his own sword in a forge. He later made a suit of armor that fit Appa perfectly.[11]

Sokka was ambidextrous to an extent. He was shown using both hands to write, attack, and draw in different situations. In some case, he even switched hands during an activity.

Sokka's face changed from the beginning to the end of the series. Originally, he had smaller eyes and an altogether more adult face than at the end. His arms also became more defined and muscular toward the end of the series.

Sokka is one of only two people, aside from the Avatars themselves, to have seen four Avatars in their lifetime, the other being Katara. He saw Roku and Kyoshi manifest themselves through Aang, knew Aang, and helped to save Avatar Korra from the Red Lotus when she was five.

Early concepts of Sokka depicted him as being thirteen years old.

Until Yue's death,[63] Sokka held little to no interest or respect for any spiritual matters. Even after her death, Sokka was the least spiritual of Team Avatar; his lack of concern for otherworldly sanctity was rivaled only by Toph's own disregard for the subject.

After LEGO released a Sokka minifigure in one of their product sets, the company's official site stated that Sokka's boomerang came from his father, Hakoda.

Sokka and Katara were created at the same time. The creators of the show liked the idea of a sibling rivalry, inspired by the fact that the two both had sisters. They were also attracted to the idea of the sister being a bender, while the brother was not.[64]

Sokka was conceived as a thirteen-year-old, but after a suggestion from Eric Coleman, he was "aged up".[65]

Sokka had an alter-ego named "Wang Fire", which he used while hiding in the Fire Nation.